Move to extend Ciba share offer rejected - BASF

16 October 2008 15:09[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--BASF’s SWFr50/share offer period for Ciba Specialty Chemicals will end as originally planned on 28 October following the official rejection of calls for an extension, BASF said on Thursday.

The Swiss Takeover Board had rejected a request from fund manager Bestinver to extend the Ciba Holding offer period and to give more details of the merger proposal, it said.

“We welcome this decision and are very confident that more than the minimum requirement of 66.67 percent of shares will be tendered by the end of the offer period,“ BASF spokesman Michael Grabicki said.

BASF’s offer represented a 32% premium on the closing price of Ciba’s shares on 12 September and 60% over the weighted average price for the 30 days prior to the bid announcement on 15 September, BASF said. It was worth SwFr6.1bn ($4.7bn/€4.0bn).

Ciba’s share price was up 1.17% at 13:31 GMT on Thursday at SwFr46.60. Chemical company shares generally were depressed across Europe in the face of economic and financial market uncertainty with BASF down 6.96% at €24.51.